I am not sure how familiar you are with the opera. A few
years ago I saw Mozart’s Don Giovanni[1].
The story is sometimes called Don Juan.
It is the story of a horrible man who uses and dumps as many women as he can;
laughing at the fact that he can’t even count his victims. At the end of the
opera Don Giovanni (or for that
matter, at the end of the opera Faust), the main character has the ability to
be forgiven, but out of pride refuses to recognize his sins and would rather be
condemned to hell[2].
Well, these are just plays or operas, but what saddens me is that many
people act the same way. There are people who think that it is too late for
them. They think that they cannot be forgiven. They think that their sins are too numerous or too grave to
merit forgiveness. Perhaps you know some of these people. Perhaps you are one
of these people. If you think that it is too late to be forgiven or that your
sins are too grave, you are wrong.
Look at the first reading for this weekend. It is from the Book of
Jonah. Now when we hear about Jonah we think about the guy who spent three days
in the belly of a whale, foreshadowing Christ’s three days in the tomb. That is only part of the story. The
whole reason why Jonah got gobbled up was because he refused to listen to God
and preach to the people of Nineveh. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell
the people that they were condemned due to their sins, so It wasn’t too late
for the Ninivites. It is never too late for us. We think that it is too late
for us to be forgiven, or that the sin was too much to forgive. Sometimes we
think that even we don’t belong in Church. Wrong! God wants everybody here. God
wants everybody here because he wants us to receive healing from the community.
Some people come to Church battling sin and frequently losing that
battle. They might have gotten
through a week or two, but then they succumb again. Once in Church they see so many around them living a moral
life that they feel that they don’t belong here. But they are wrong.
The need to be here because they need to be in the presence of
compassion and love, compassion and love emanating from Christ and reflected by
the Catholic community. It is not too late for them. It is never too late for any of us!
Today’s Gospel sums up all of Jesus’ teaching. His message was simple:
repent and believe in the Gospel, the Good News. The Good News is that happiness
and peace are offered to us if we are willing to fight against sin and turn to
the Lord. The Good News is that nothing can take Christ from us. No one, no situation in life, nothing
can destroy the joy that we have in being united to the Lord.
And this joy is there for us, every one of us. We can embrace the joy.
We do not have to be like Don Giovanni. We cannot allow our pride to destroy
us. We can the humility to embrace the Lord’s compassion. The Lord never gives
up on us. We do not have the
right to give up on ourselves ■
[1] Don Giovanni (K. 527; complete title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni,
literally The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni) is an opera in two acts
with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
It is based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer. It
was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29,
1787. Da Ponte's libretto was billed, like many of its time, as dramma giocoso, a term that denotes a
mixing of serious and comic action. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue
as an opera buffa. Although sometimes classified as comic, it blends comedy,
melodrama and supernatural elements. A staple of the standard operatic
repertoire, Don Giovanni is currently
tenth on the Opera base list of the most-performed operas worldwide. It has
also proved a fruitful subject for writers and philosophers.
[2] 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time B, January 25, 2015.
Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Responsorial Psalm 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 1 Corinthians
7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20.
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